diff --git a/pageserver/benches/bench_walredo.rs b/pageserver/benches/bench_walredo.rs
index bb235492d1..8bc464f1ba 100644
--- a/pageserver/benches/bench_walredo.rs
+++ b/pageserver/benches/bench_walredo.rs
@@ -31,8 +31,7 @@ fn redo_scenarios(c: &mut Criterion) {
     let conf = Box::leak(Box::new(conf));
     let tenant_id = TenantId::generate();
     // std::fs::create_dir_all(conf.tenant_path(&tenant_id)).unwrap();
-    let mut manager = PostgresRedoManager::new(conf, tenant_id);
-    manager.launch_process(14).unwrap();
+    let manager = PostgresRedoManager::new(conf, tenant_id, 14);
 
     let manager = Arc::new(manager);
 
diff --git a/pageserver/src/walredo.rs b/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
index c2921ad964..95a1bf2895 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
@@ -273,16 +273,6 @@ impl PostgresRedoManager {
         Ok(rx.recv().unwrap())
     }
 
-    /// Launch process pre-emptively. Should not be needed except for benchmarking.
-    pub fn launch_process(&mut self, pg_version: u32) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
-        let inner = self.process.get_mut().unwrap();
-        if inner.is_none() {
-            let p = PostgresRedoProcess::launch(self.conf, self.tenant_id, pg_version)?;
-            *inner = Some(p);
-        }
-        Ok(())
-    }
-
     ///
     // Apply given WAL records ('records') over an old page image. Returns
     // new page image.